State board votes to ban captive deer, elk hunting

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Â? Hunting deer and other animals inside fenced areas would be banned in Indiana under state regulations that could take effect within about two months.

The state's Natural Resources Commission on Tuesday approved ending the so-called "canned" hunts. The state attorney general and governor must approve the new regulations.

Department of Natural Resources Director Kyle Hupfer had sought the new rules after announcing in August that he believed preserves that hold such hunts for deer or elk were not authorized under Indiana law.

No state agency compiles information on high-fenced hunting operations, but there are believed to be between 12 to 15 in Indiana.

Hupfer said the new regulations could take more than two months to take effect and would apply to deer, elk and exotic animals such as wild boar, zebras and red deer.

He said the state attorney general has 45 days to approve the rules, after which Gov. Mitch Daniels must endorse them. The rules would then be submitted to the secretary of state's office for a 30-day waiting period before taking effect.

The DNR had held off on a fenced-hunting ban so the General Assembly could consider the matter during its session which ended last week.

The House approved a proposal which would have made it legal to hunt animals inside the fenced hunting preserves for the next seven years. But that bill did not win final passage, allowing the DNR to follow through with its plan to shut down the preserves.

A lawsuit challenging the ban is pending, with a southern Indiana hunting-preserve owner seeking a restraining order in Harrison County to stop the DNR from implementing a ban.

Daniels told reporters recently he hoped for a resolution between the DNR and the preserves as there was evidence that owners had been told in the past that they could hold their hunts.

"Their argument has, I think, some merit from a fairness standpoint," Daniels said. "I think there may well be a compromise in there, and I hope we reach one."

Hupfer said he had determined that while the state game breeder permit allows for the possession, breeding and sale of white-tailed deer, it does not authorize the hunting of deer maintained under that license.

His move to ban the hunts followed last year's conviction of a Miami County deer farmer on charges he violated federal wildlife protection laws by allowing unlicensed hunters to use illegal weapons and bait to hunt bucks on his land.